Join the Wryforce - Bird of the Year 2025

01/10/2025

OPERATION BOTY2025 COMPLETE - MISSION PHASE ONE.

Recruit says: We got over 6,500 votes and into the top 20 - so its a good start for a wee, grey, camouflaged ! We've definitely raised the profile of Ngutu Pare Wrybill, and so that is a win for us that we are grateful to you all for! Woop woop!!

Congrats to the Kārearea and well done to all the other birds who joined on this ride.

There is more work to do. We're keen to continue to build the Wader Alliance to raise the profile of all the braided river birds.

Being the winners of BOTY at this early childhood centre in West Auckland (see photo) also warms our wee hearts! (Links to our mates at Pūkorokoro had NOTHING to do with it).

In the North Island - remember that you can still come see us at Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre at this time. We are just in smaller numbers than Winter time.

In the South Island - remind your friends and family that we are all nesting on the braided rivers right now, and see if anyone is keen for some exercise and some trap checking! We would be SOOO super appreciative! Find and join one of the fantastic braided river care groups near you! Braided River Aid

And lastly a MASSIVE thanks for the Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group - Nick Ledger, Judith Hughey, and all the work of Grant Davey with photos, video, trailcams and following of us all out here, and so many great people that got involved around Rangiora.

Keep up with all the drama (of pests, rivals, floods, etc) that is our lives over on their page! Hopefully we will see some successful nesting soon!

Meanwhile we may practise our freeze mode (like the stellar job the chick recruit is doing in the photo) in preparation for the next operation.

NGĀ MIHI NUI FOR ALL THE LOVE!
Team Ngutu Pare Wrybill.

28/09/2025

📣 A SHOUT OUT from Team Ngutu Pare Wrybill! A huge thanks to every single human who voted for us, shared our story, or hung alongside us this Bird of the Year season! 💛

There were good times, there were… sad times 😢 — but our mission to make a bit of noise for Ngutu Pare Wrybill is almost complete.

For a bunch of like us, just swooping into the Top 20 would be a massive win. 🐦✨

We’ll find out tomorrow… so keep those wings crossed! 🤞

27/09/2025

LAST DAY OF VOTING: birdoftheyear.org.nz/wrybill
SPECIAL OPS - PSYCHOLOGY DIVISION UPDATE. We bring you here the Wryforce Special 'remote viewing' operations team.

Desperate times, desperate measures.
Spread and share the (special psych ops) love.

YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.
AND YOU WILL DO IT BEFORE 5PM.
AND WE WILL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.

27/09/2025

HANG ON, HELP IS ON ITS WAY. Recruit says: A song covered by our Little Braided River Band birdy mates recently that I now send out to BWBW wherever he is! Hopefully he will be back in a few weeks to try again with another nest.

HELP IS ON ITS WAY (THAT's YOU!):
- VOTE: birdoftheyear.org.nz/wrybill (wherever you are)
- SHARE: spread the love of Ngutu Pare Wrybill!
- JOIN: join a river care, pest control or other habitat care group in your area - if not for Ngutu Pare, then for other endemic creatures around you!

VOTE TOO FOR THE LITTLE BRAIDED RIVER BAND MEMBERS:
Tarāpuka Black Billed Gull - Tarāpuka for Bird Of The Year
Tarapirohe Black Fronted Tern - East Coast Protection Group
Pohowera Banded Dotterel -
Kakī Black Stilt - Vote for Kakī - Black Stilt
Ngutu Pare Wrybill

Send a message to learn more

27/09/2025

27/09/2025

RECRUIT SAYS: YAYY!!!! SOME POSITIVE NEWS! We're going up in the Bird of the Year charts thanks to the hearty kids at Pegasus Bay School and TV1 for telling their and the Ngutu Pare Wrybill story.

So sad to have to share about the Owl attack & the unknown whereabouts of BWBW aka The Wizard - but *SO HEARTENING to feel people out there care!*

KEEP SHARING THE LOVE & PASS IT ON!!
VOTE HERE: birdoftheyear.org.nz/wrybill (& verify by email!)

Also a big thanks to Grant Davey and Judith Hughey of ARRG Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group. They totally ROCK.

After a cheeky cameo on the six o’clock news, Wizard the wrybill is up in the Top 20, and climbing still! Aotearoa is backing the sideways-beaked underbird with full feathered force. Where will Wizard land tomorrow at 5pm?

26/09/2025

RECRUIT REPORT: ENEMY OWL ATTACK CAUGHT ON CAMERA. NEST 01 DESTROYED. BWBW MIA. WE MUST FIGHT ON. WE MUST LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ALL THE ENEMIES! CAN THEY BE OUR HOPE FOR SURVIVAL? CAN YOU?

Cantabrarians and North Otago-arians! JOIN a Rivercare group near you and become part of the Wryforce Ground Crew:

Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group | Braided River Aid | Braided Rivers Community Trust Ashburton | Hurunui Biodiversity Trust & more!...

26/09/2025

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE WADER ALLIANCE: LOVE OUR CHARADRIIFORMES! :) We are the birds on your shores and braided rivers... and hell yeah we are just as awesome as any of these birds that kiwis know so well. Wrybill, for example, are freaking adorable, if I say so myself.

LAST DAYS OF VOTING: ENDS SUNDAY
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
birdoftheyear.org.nz/wrybill

What's going on Aotearoa?

There are no charadriiformes in the current top 10!
Hot off the press, there are none even in the top 20!

Let's show our love for the waders, terns, gulls, and skuas!

In no particular order.. we've fixed the top 10 rankings! (But yes, we did put kakī as #1!)

Southern NZ Dotterel/Pukunui
East Coast Protection Group
Join the Wryforce - Bird of the Year 2025
Dunedin Wildlife Hospital
Tarāpuka for Bird Of The Year
New Zealand shore plover
Kakī Recovery Programme

www.birdoftheyear.org.nz

25/09/2025

Vote for Kakī - Black Stilt too! Our mates out on the braided rivers are rockin’ it out here also!

Time for charadriiformes to win Bird of the Year! Oh yeah.

www.birdoftheyear.org.nz

You know you're voting for kakī, but not sure which other birds to pick?

How about voting for the other charming charadriiformes of the wader alliance?

Pukunui/Southern NZ dotterel have taken the dubious honour of rarest wading bird in the world. Up until recently that title was held by kakī. Desperate times for these waders, so they're worth one of your votes. Plus we love their big round red bellies when in breeding plumage. Southern NZ Dotterel/Pukunui

Tarāpuka/black-fronted tern are fierce wee birds that are masters of fishing. I recently watched one dive bombing a kārearea/NZ falcon.. so brave! A tern rather than a wader, but we're including them in our wader alliance, because we can! East Coast Protection Group

Ngutu pare/wrybill are unique in the Bird world for their adorably bent bills. How can you not love them? Join the Wryforce - Bird of the Year 2025

Pohowera/banded dotterels are the stripey potato shaped bird of the rivers and beaches that rarely stay still! https://www.instagram.com/pohowera_boty2025?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=YTMxMzNhZDZmYw==

Tūturuatu/shore plover are another of the critically endangered club. Like kakī, they rely on an intensive captive breeding programme to prevent extinction. Definitely an underbird that needs your vote! New Zealand shore plover

There are also a couple of other charadriiformes in the running. Our friends at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital are supporting tarāpunga/red-billed gulls. Tarāpunga get a bad rep, but are so much more than the stereotypical scavenging "seagull"!

In 20 years, we've only had two charadriiformes win Bird of the Year; the bar-tailed godwit in 2015, and the tara iti/fairy tern in 2014.

Surely it's time for another!!

www.birdoftheyear.org.nz

22/09/2025

I FEEL SO SEEN by these guys.... the Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group sees what our troops deal with out on the braided rivers.. and others here like our critically endangered mates the Black-billed Gulls. If it's not motorbikes its 4-wheelers, or jet boats or harriers, stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats, cats, dogs, hedgehogs - even the hares are out to get us! And then there are the floods...

Some people don't get just how many pressures there are on us. It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.. Hmmmm...

22/09/2025

Oh my gosh, don't you just LOVE the Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group and their mates at Pegasus Bay School??!?! These kids are SOOO awesome!..

Love love love from this old Ngutu Pare! :)
XX

21/09/2025

TINY, ELITE, UNIQUE. Watch 60secs of fabulous reasons why you should vote for Ngutu Pare Wrybill! https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/wrybill

Wherever you are in the world — this is one political election YOU can vote in! Just remember to *verify your vote* via email.

We Ngutu Pare Wrybill hang out in Manukau, Firth of Thames tidal mudflats up north in Winter and head south to the braided rivers try to raise a few chicks as the weather warms up, as do the many other braided river birds.

We may be but that is not going to stop us. Its time everyone knew how fabulous we are. Watch the video to see why and then --

* tell your mates, tell your mum!!
* tell them and your overseas friends to vote for Wrybill!
* share this post to all the world!!